Devon Toews is not happy with his Avalanche teammates – Gudstory

Last week, the Colorado Avalanche showed that despite their warts and occasional hiccups, they still have equipment that few (if any) other teams have access to.Look at this now!). It looked as if the Avs were working their way through the regular season and hitting their stride in the spring. After all, this is a team that is only 18 months away from the Stanley Cup and a first-round exit last April, so they should definitely get a feel for what it takes and what is meaningful. They were pacing themselves while others might be beating themselves up before important matches.

Or maybe not.

This type of expression from teammates in the press is very rare for hockey, given the sacred nature players tend to keep in “the room.” So, for Devon Toews to pull this trigger now, there has to be something very rotten.

No, the Avs should not lose to Chicago under any circumstances, even if Cale Makar is out injured. The Hawks are the kind of opponent you give Makar a day off, because a team like the Avs is supposed to sweep that kind of AHL-plus roster aside while his heart rate barely picks up. In fairness, there will be a weird night when the Hawks get a win because Connor Bedard will decide that. Doing things like thisor this:

But still, that shouldn’t happen to the Avs. Perhaps Toews thought sounding alarm bells now, while the Avs were still atop the Central Division, or tied for it, was the better course of action rather than waiting before they dropped too far down the standings. A long runway to sort out what he thinks is the problem, so to speak.

But who exactly is Toez talking about?

Toews spends most of his time playing behind the top line, Nathan MacKinnon’s line, so it’s hard to believe he thinks MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen don’t know how the Avs play and where they’re supposed to be. After all, the system was designed around them.

Given Makar’s absence, Toews was paired with Bowen Byram a fair amount on Tuesday night. Byram has been around for a while now, and although he tends to operate a little independently and get a little cowboyish, that’s kind of an Avs thing. Toews was on the ice late in the third period when Bedard was dazzled by Valeri Nishushkin and Frederik Olofsson and allowed him to rip them apart for a power-play goal. Are they the object of his wrath? Nichushkin has 29 points in 30 games, so maybe that’s not the case. Expectations can’t be too high for Olofsson, he’s just a man.

Sure, having Miles Wood running around trying to prove how tough he is, taking stupid penalties, is probably not the best way to introduce yourself to his teammates. But Wood has his uses. He and fellow new signing Ross Colton are the ones tasked with making the defensive transitions so McKinnon doesn’t have to worry about them.

Although I’m biased, one is inclined to think that Toews is looking directly at Ryan Johansen, who should really enjoy the sweet spot playing center on the line behind McKinnon. Mac K takes the best defensive pairs and best screening positions, which should allow the No. 2 position to slaughter to his heart’s desire. It did make Nazem Qadri very rich after all.

The problem is that Johansen himself is a vagabond and spent one more season in Nashville while on contract. Johansen’s line had most of the puck when he was on the ice Tuesday night, but he couldn’t get a shot on goal all night and the only time anyone noticed was when he repeatedly tried to punch Colin Blackwell when Blackwell wasn’t looking, a signature move from Johansen. He has two points in his last 11 games, has not managed more than two shots on goal in a game since the end of November and has not been a threat. And again, he’s positioned where it shouldn’t be difficult for him to be a threat, especially Tuesday night, most of which he spent facing off against Nikita Zaitsev and Philipp Ross, neither of whom are NHL players.

Toews is clearly upset that there is a hole somewhere on the roster and this is perhaps the next biggest hole in the net. Jonathan Drouin isn’t doing anything either, but Drouin hasn’t done anything in four or five years and there’s a reason he’s on his third team at 28 years old.

There’s clearly something wrong with Denver, even if there are plenty of teams that would trade places with them. Maybe it’s not so simple after all.

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